PHOBIE OF THE YEAR: VLADIMIR PUTINTo hold the the president of Russia responsible for every antigay incident within his country's borders might be unfair. But it's far less offensive than what's happening to LGBT Russians.

To be named Phobie of the Year seems like a slap on the wrist compared to what LGBT advocates in the United States are actually worried about. When activist and Broadway producer Harvey Fierstein wrote an op-ed in TheNew York Times that drew so much attention from the mainstream to this problem, he invoked the specter of the 1936 Olympic Games. "In 1936 the world attended the Olympics in Germany. Few participants said a word about Hitler's campaign against the Jews," he wrote. "Supporters of that decision point proudly to the triumph of Jesse Owens, while I point with dread to the Holocaust and world war. There is a price for tolerating intolerance." What an ominous games the 2014 event may be. While the Olympic charter claims to promote "human dignity," and the games will draw the world's attention in February, the Russian parliament is on the verge of considering yet another antigay law. This one would order children with gay or lesbian parents to be taken from their homes. That's because in twisted Russia, it's LGBT people who are considered a danger, and not their government. — Lucas Grindley